A group of East Tennessee students struggling with their homework or studying don’t have to rely on parents any more, thanks to a new online tutoring service called TutorTN.

The new service is available to Knox County Public Library users attending any level of school, from kindergarten through college. Students simply visit www.tutor.com/TutorTN and enter their library card numbers to connect with expert tutors for one-to-one homework help or tutoring sessions in online classrooms. In cooperation with the Knox County School District, students who do not have Knox County Public Library cards can use the district password instead.

"TutorTN provides a terrific service for young people," Secretary Hargett said. "I am pleased that we are able to offer this service for students who live in and around Knox County."

Once students log onto the service, they select their grade levels and subjects they are studying. Students type in their questions or upload problems to share with their tutors. The tutors work with the students in online classrooms where they can text, use interactive whiteboards or share documents. Students who sign up for optional free accounts can share their sessions via e-mail and review them later.

The Maples family of Knoxville has been using the TutorTN service and has nothing but good things to say.

"The Tutor.com service has pretty much been the salvation of our home life since we started using the service," Aubrey Maples said. "Tutor.com has been readily available to answer honors chemistry questions, check honors geometry homework, and - most importantly - critique and coach editing for English papers. The tutors at Tutor.com are able to tell my son a critique, and he is able to hear their coaching and adjust his approach to papers."

Tutor.com is the largest online tutoring service in the country. The new program is funded by the Tennessee State Library and Archives and is available to all Knox County residents via their library card numbers through the end of the current school year. If the program is successful, the State Library and Archives hopes to expand the service to all Tennessee students in the fall of 2014 through the Tennessee Electronic Library.

"It is clear Tutor.com's goal is to teach concepts, not give the easy answer," Aubrey Maples said. "I sincerely hope funding is made available to expand this program to other families in Tennessee."

The Tennessee Electronic Library is a virtual library with more than 400,000 resources that are available anywhere with Internet access in Tennessee, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To learn more about the Tennessee Electronic Library, visit http://tntel.tnsos.org/.

The TutorTN pilot project in Knox County is available seven days a week from 3 p.m. until 10 p.m. Students can use computers, mobile phones or tablets to access the system. Tutor.com has a community of almost 3,000 tutors who can help in all core academic subjects. Students can even connect to writing tutors to review papers, reports and even college essays.

"Research shows that one-to-one tutoring is the best way to help students achieve significant academic gains," said Sandi White, general manager of Tutor.com."When students are stuck on a homework question or want to get an A on their next big exam or paper, our tutors can help."